Building iPhones is a terrible, low-paid, monotonous,
exhausting job that most iPhone customers would be appalled by
and would never want to do. ( You already know this.)

Building iPhones is a better job in China than many
other jobs in China, which is why so many people do it.
(Depressing, but undeniable.)

Apple is fantastically profitable and could invest more of
its profits in paying its suppliers better and hiring more
employees to monitor working conditions in its supply chain. But
there's no free lunch: If Apple did this, it would earn less
money, and some people would freak out about that. (Maybe even
you!)

Many, many consumer products, including jewelry, makeup,
microwave ovens, TVs, and videogame consoles also contain
materials that are extracted using child labor (and worse). One
of our writers recently discovered that
her modest consumption habits depend on the work of 43
slaves. (You consume a lot of these products, too. And you
don't really care. Or at least you don't care enough to stop
buying the products.)

None of this is to say that some of the truth about the parts and
labor that go into your iPhone isn't depressing and horrifying.
It is.

It is also not to say that Apple shouldn't keep trying to do
better. It should.

But as you go around wagging your finger at Apple today, be
honest about your own contribution to this problem. Today's
economy is global. Some of the people who make the products you
use every day have jobs
and lives that you would consider appalling. You know this. You
just fortunately don't have to think about it very often. You are
also choosing to continue buying these products, even though you
know what goes into them.